Azerbaijan jails reporter on espionage charges

April 21, 2014 5:45 PM ET

New York, April 21, 2014--A court in Baku today ordered journalist
Rauf Mirkadyrov, Turkey correspondent for the independent Azerbaijani newspaper
Zerkalo, to jail for three months
pending trial on espionage charges after he was deported from Turkey, news
reports said.

News reports said the journalist and
commentator Mirkadyrov had reported from Turkey for the past three years, and
had often criticized both Turkish and Azeri authorities for human rights
abuses. In addition to reporting for Zerkalo,
news
reports said, Mirkadyrov was involved in nongovernmental projects on
improving dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which have not had
diplomatic relations since the early 1990s, due to a dispute over the
Nagorno-Karabakh region.

According to CPJ
research, Mirkadyrov is the ninth journalist behind bars in Azerbaijan. The
latest jailing comes just before Azerbaijan is to assume in mid-May rotating
chairmanship of the Council of
Europe, the Strasbourg-based intergovernmental human rights body. The 47
members of the council "have signed up to the European Convention on Human
Rights, a treaty designed to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of
law," according to its website.

"As if deportation is not enough, Rauf Mirkadyrov is accused
of being a spy and jailed. We call on Azerbaijani authorities to drop these
trumped-up charges and stop abusing the law to silence independent reporting on
the country," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova
said. "Azerbaijan is quickly becoming one of the leading jailers of journalists
in the Eurasia region."

According to regional and international
press reports, Mirkadyrov was detained on treason charges by the Azerbaijani national
security service, the MNB, upon his arrival from Ankara to Baku on Saturday. Today,
the journalist was brought before the Nasimi District Court in Baku, where the
charges were narrowed to espionage for Armenia, the independent regional news
website Kavkazsky Uzelreported.

The independent news website Contactreported,
citing the Azerbaijani prosecutor-general's office, that the charges against
Mirkadyrov stem from his past trips to Armenia, Georgia, as well as his time in
Turkey, during which he allegedly met with Armenian security services and
handed them information of a political and military nature, including state
secrets. Mirkadyrov has denied all the accusations, saying they are politically
motivated and in retaliation for his work; he faces up to a life term in jail
if convicted, Kavkazsky Uzelreported.

Citing Mirkadyrov's wife, Adelya Babakhanova, Kavkazsky Uzel said that on Friday Turkish police in Ankara detained
the entire family on accusation of having expired travel documents. The
journalist and his wife told the police that their immigration status would
only expire at the end of the year. Mirkadyrov was deported to Azerbaijan; it
is unclear whether the journalist's family remained in Turkey or traveled with
him.

Press freedom conditions in Azerbaijan have been on a steady
decline in recent years, CPJ research shows. Despite their declared commitments
to uphold press freedom, as well as the obligations before the Council of
Europe, Azerbaijani authorities have jailed
and harassed
critics, adopted laws
restricting the press, and imposed draconian restrictions on
nongovernmental organizations.